Z. Hareli, A. Shemesh, Minister Shiranski, M. Ben-Porat, J. Nahum
Next to the Babylonian Museum entrance in Or-Yehuda stands an impressive monument to the memory of the Iraqi Jewish Martyrs.
Every year, on 15 January, we conduct a memorial ceremony and light memorial candles for their spiritual exaltation. This year a crowd of hundreds, family members of the 65 innocent Jews assassinated, hanged, or kidnapped, and many individuals of the Iraqi Community gathered to share and remember the sad and dreadful events which occurred four to five decades ago.
Here are a few words about two of them:
On 21 January 1952, after torture and endless suffering, two heroes named Joseph Basri and Saleh Shalom, of blessed memory, were executed in the northern square of Baghdad, by hanging with great cruelty. With their last breath they out cried "Long Live the State of Israel".
The event took place immediately following Operation Ezra and Nehemia in which 105,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from all parts of Iraq.
One might say that the cruel execution of Joseph Basri might appear as a "consolation" after the path of anguish and tortures he suffered in the dungeons of the Iraqi prison; it was all to force a confession from him about the arms caches in the synagogues.
Mr. Joseph Basri succeeded, like many Iraqi Jews, to acquire higher academic education. Unfortunately like many other Jews all over the world, his doom was to be death by cold-blooded murderers who were determined to bring about the annihilation of all Jewish People.
The history of the Jewish people on all its various communities experienced throughout the years continuous satanic acts of hatred, violence, pogroms and Holocaust, the origin of which was simply hatred for Jews.
Nations say about Jews that we suffer from paranoia. However, the history of the Jewish people keeps repeating itself as in an attempt to preclude us from the opportunity to forget or as an inexplicable wish to prove to each one of us, old or young, that terrifying events might easily recur.
Was the Holocaust brought to us by Adolf Hitler 55 years ago the last to come? No! Today we are witnessing the re-awakening of the monstrous Nazi movement.
As concrete proof of the tortures Joseph Basri and Shalom Saleh had experienced prior to their death, we had the opportunity to see more vivid testimony in the Gulf War. We saw the horrific acts and tools of torture exposed during the war and only then did we get a real idea of how the Iraqi leaders treated the Jews and all due to their unexplained hatred.
The ceremony we conduct every year is to memorialize the souls of the 65 heroes, who were kidnapped, hanged, assassinated, and those whose bodies have never been found to this day, or those who were forced to follow the path of anguish and torture and finally were assassinated even if in fact some of them were not engaged whatsoever with any kind of Zionist activities relating to the State of Israel.
Dear readers, there is one thing which distinguishes the past from the present. Today we are equipped with many opportunities to know and in many instances to see live broadcasts showing the horrors taking place in different parts of the world. Many events that we are able to see today bring up real memories of what we and our fathers experienced ourselves on our own flesh. Having these pictures and memories accompanying us constantly and as long as the Jewish people continue to be persecuted by reason of religion, we will not forget and we will not allow others to forget those of us who sacrificed their lives for a sacred aim.
May their souls be blessed.